Dreams (Part One)

"We're in trouble!"

A quarter of an hour earlier, Liu Ahu had stood on the slope of Flower Mountain, watching across a stream as the distant tiger, frightened into running in a straight line, charged straight toward the pavilion curtains ahead. Dumbstruck with horror, he had turned almost instinctively to Liu Acheng.

Liu Acheng, who had puffed and panted his way up the mountain carrying a crossbow, also felt his vision go black. How could he have foreseen this?

The tiger they had driven out was clearly about to barge into the picnic pavilion of a top-ranking aristocratic clan. If even one or two people were killed or injured, Liu Rengong would probably have to grab his belongings and flee to Guangzhou for his life! The accomplices responsible would have no choice but to follow him there and start over!

If they ran too slowly, they might lose their lives.

As for why they could be sure this was an elite second-rank aristocratic household rather than an ordinary gentry family, the answer was obvious. With the Double Ninth Festival approaching, plenty of people were camping and climbing Flower Mountain near Jiankang, yet this family alone occupied the largest platform at the summit, with so many Slave Retainers and maids, and curtains spread over such a vast area.

But this was no time to think about that. They needed a solution.

Even Liu Jili ran over now, staring glassily at Liu Acheng. When he spoke, his voice trembled. "Acheng, there are so many of them, and I think there are little children too. A family this numerous, climbing Flower Mountain-I can only think of those Wang and Xie households."

"Never mind which family it is, or what comes afterward. Right now, we have two options." Liu Acheng turned around, forcibly pushing the names Wang and Xie out of his mind, and gave his instructions. "First, we turn around and leave... pretend none of this happened, go back and keep a tight watch on everyone who came with us today, and see whether we can bluff our way through. Second, we leave behind the fishing nets, forks, spears, military crossbows, and stiff bows. We take only wooden clubs, ropes, axes, light bows, and chopping knives up there, and say we're from the nearby refugee camp, out gathering firewood. We heard there was a tiger and came to help."

"Which of those two will do more to spare our families this disaster?" Liu Huzi's face was still white.

"They're the same... either way, we'll have to watch our people when we get back. Either way, word could leak out, and we'll have to be ready to flee at any moment. If we handle it well, all we can do is cover up what's happening right now," Liu Acheng answered without hesitation. "The advantage of the first is that they won't trace us for a while. The advantage of the second is that we can deal with the wounds on the tiger and find out how many casualties they've suffered!"

"Then the second!" Liu Ahu was decisive. "If they're the same anyway, we might as well get the tiger back!"

"Remember, we're gathering firewood nearby. Once we get up there, ask them where the tiger is," Liu Acheng said with a nod.

"We're gathering firewood nearby. Where's the tiger?" Liu Huzi repeated.

"Leave out the first bit. Just say, 'Where's the tiger? Where is it? Point it out to me!'" Liu Acheng corrected him helplessly. "Explain after we've dealt with the tiger."

"Where's the tiger? Where is it?" Liu Huzi repeated again. "Point it out to me! Got it-we have to look as though we rushed over in a hurry!"

Liu Acheng was just about to nod when the distant tiger plunged into the pavilion. A roar shook the heavens, followed by countless people scattering in flight, crying and screaming. He could only grit his teeth and order at once, "Assign everyone quickly! Move now!"

Including Liu Jili, who had fallen silent, all three turned back to brief their men. Unexpectedly, Liu Jili looked the most ferocious. "Once we're up there, don't say a word. Just follow us, knock the tiger down, and carry it away... these aristocrats are the most vicious of the lot. They'll set their armed servants to hacking people down for no reason at all. Now that the tiger's run over and frightened them, if you dare shoot your mouths off, they'll hate us too. You'll drag the whole camp into it, and even your wives and children won't be safe... just remember, we're here gathering firewood. We happened to pass by and helped them drive off a tiger!"

"Keep your mouths shut and follow Acheng's orders in everything! Whoever talks out of turn, I'll bury him myself when we get back!" Liu Huzi also turned ruthless.

With those two handling it that way, Liu Cheng was spared having to play the villain.

At that, the three hesitated no longer. They left every military crossbow, stiff bow, spear, and fishing net behind, while their followers grabbed wooden clubs, chopping knives, light bows, and hemp ropes-or went empty-handed-and crossed the stream, charging ahead.

By now, the summit of Flower Mountain had already dissolved into chaos.

Liu Huzi carried a woodcutting knife. Halfway there, he came to his senses and threw off his Leather Two-Panel Armor too. Leading the charge, he raised his knife from afar and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't panic! Where's the tiger? Where is it? Point it out to me!"

The Xie Family's young people and Slave Retainers alike were overjoyed, and all pointed toward the pavilion from a distance.

Seeing this, Liu Huzi charged straight into the pavilion without hesitation, dozens of men swarming after him. Holding a hemp rope, Liu Acheng mingled with the crowd, glancing left and right for any injured aristocratic children he could help first. Liu Jili brought up the rear with a large wooden club, glaring fiercely at everyone's backs as though ready to enforce military discipline at any moment.

Once they rushed inside, everyone was delighted to find that the tiger was sitting motionless, merely panting heavily. Blood on the ground had soaked the pavilion fabric beneath its feet. Clearly, it had only half its life left.

"Ropes! Ropes!" Liu Huzi hurriedly turned and shouted. "Acheng, Acheng, get over here!"

Liu Acheng had deliberately chosen a rope to keep himself out of danger, but now he could only steel himself and go forward first.

Fortunately, Liu Huzi was a reckless brute himself. He took one end of the rope from Liu Cheng and personally circled the great tiger to bind it. After he made one circuit, the tiger still did not move. Seeing this, the others surged forward too, pulling tight from both ends to restrain it.

That was not all. Seeing the situation clearly, Liu Cheng immediately ordered, "Pull down the curtains beside you! Cut them open and bind it with those!"

Now, as the ropes tightened around it, the tiger finally struggled and roared again. Seizing his moment, Liu Cheng handed his rope to the man beside him, ran back out of the pavilion, and shouted, "Everyone, move farther away! We're only woodcutters, with no proper equipment. If the tiger bursts out and hurts any of you noble folk, we'll be in trouble!"

He hardly needed to say it. The Xie Clan's Slave Retainers had long since escorted their young masters and mistresses far away.

In fact, Xie Quan had already begun counting his younger brothers and sisters. But there were so many of them, and people kept interrupting, while others had suffered scrapes or injuries from falling. He kept getting halfway through before having to look for someone or being interrupted, then starting all over again.

"Third Brother!" Just as Xie Quan finally finished counting the boys and was about to begin on the girls, his youngest brother, Xie Ae, offered a suggestion. "Encountering a tiger in the mountains is nothing unusual. We were unlucky, that's all. But since those woodcutters came to help subdue it, shouldn't we send our Slave Retainers to assist them? The sooner the tiger's killed, the sooner we can rest easy."

"What do you mean, subdue it? Do you think a tiger's easy to kill?" Utterly exasperated, Xie Quan scolded him repeatedly. "Those woodcutters are only helping drive it away. Why send people up there to meddle for no reason? If anyone dies, it won't be easy for the family to deal with."

Xie Ae was only seven. Though he did not understand why his third brother sounded so sure of himself, he could hardly say anything more.

But just then, a girl's voice suddenly rang out beside them. "What are you saying, Brother? If this tiger isn't killed, it will surely hurt others who come here later! Since we encountered it, it would be one thing if we'd all scattered and fled. But now that someone's helping us, we should help them in return and eliminate it, rather than leave disaster in our wake!"

The moment Xie Quan heard that voice, he became tongue-tied and stood speechless. After choking on his words for a while, he finally said, "Eldest Sister, it's really not that I don't want to do anything. Look at the situation. We have neither proper equipment nor the strength and courage, and our brothers and sisters are scattered everywhere. We don't know whether they're safe..."

"Where does the danger come from?" the girl continued.

"From... from the tiger..." Xie Quan grew still more dejected. He had known from the start that he could not win an argument with his eldest sister.

"Then what else is there to say?" The girl, Xie Daoyun, who was only twelve that year, was furious. "Once the tiger's gone, won't everyone be safe? You won't need to stand here counting people either. And as for the equipment you mentioned, Brother, those woodcutters clearly have nothing but chopping knives, ropes, and clubs. Aren't they helping subdue the tiger all the same? It's not as though our household's Slave Retainers have no blades and axes!"

"Those woodcutters are all refugees from Jingkou, Northern Chu men from the Huai River region. They're used to life and death, and their lives are cheap. Naturally, they can subdue a tiger. Our Slave Retainers only carry blades and axes to frighten people. They don't have that kind of courage." Xie Quan seized on his last point and struggled to argue.

"If that's so, why don't you go yourself, Third Brother? Don't you have any courage?" Xie Daoyun found his words increasingly absurd. "If you lead the way, the others will find their courage too... besides, since you keep talking about Northern Chu, you ought to remember that we're Northern Chu people who came south as well."

Hearing this, Xie Quan felt as though he had been struck by lightning. He could only think her words utterly absurd.

As for being Northern Chu people who had come south, Chen Commandery was indeed geographically part of Northern Chu in the Huai River region. But how could the illustrious Chen Commandery Xie Clan be mentioned in the same breath as those refugees?

More importantly, how could he go subdue a tiger? He... he was already seventeen. He had already declined four or five summons to office, and was about to begin his official career in the most prestigious and unsullied of posts. How could he personally go hack at a tiger?

Yet he dared not say any of this. He knew that the moment he did, his eldest sister would surely start with their uncle who commanded troops, asking how he expected to command armies on a northern expedition in the future if he did not even dare hack at a tiger. She would argue him into a corner from which there was no escape... but he simply did not dare!

He simply felt that, as a distinguished scion of the illustrious Xie Clan, why should he have to hack at a tiger?!

Seeing this, Xie Daoyun grew even angrier. She thrust the little sister she held into his arms, turned and snatched a small knife from Steward Qian's hand, then snapped at the armed servants beside her. "Come! Follow me and subdue the tiger!"

With that, she really did lead the way toward it.

Now Xie Quan was frightened out of his wits. He hurriedly passed his little sister, who had begun wailing, to Steward Qian beside him, then threw all caution aside and darted forward, clamping his arms around his eldest sister's shoulders... if this half-grown tigress really ended up in a real tiger's jaws, he would probably never be able to show his face at home again.

While pandemonium reigned some distance outside the pavilion, little did they know that within it, the genuine great tiger with slanting eyes and a white forehead had already reached the end of the road.

The men had bound it easily. To preserve the most valuable prize, its pelt, they could not even bear to use their chopping knives. Instead, they used clubs to beat this monarch of Flower Mountain, as tall as a man even when seated, until blood poured from all seven openings of its head... only when the dead tiger toppled over did they realize why it had been so easy.

As it turned out, this tiger had been bleeding not from seven openings, but eight!

Liu Acheng's earlier bolt had actually struck just outside the tiger's anus, penetrating alongside its large intestine. No wonder it had run with its tail raised... and that was not all. When the beast arrived here, its paw, already injured in the pit, caused it to stumble. It tripped over the pavilion curtains and landed sitting down, driving the entire crossbow bolt into its body. Who knew how many folds of intestine it had pierced? Finding and extracting it would take some time.

In other words, just as Liu Huzi had judged earlier, they had already landed a fatal blow. After the tiger finally bounded into the pavilion and let out a couple of frenzied roars, it had no strength left at all.

"What do we do now?" Seeing that the tiger was thoroughly dead, Liu Huzi felt both elated and at a loss.

"Carry it outside, with plenty of fanfare! Shout! Cheer! This is no time to hide!" Liu Acheng's heart was still pounding wildly, but he had calmed down considerably. "Whichever family's out there, find out who they are. Brother Jili, you ask, then explain who we are and introduce us properly. Next, Huzi, take the tiger over and tell them we happen to be paying our respects to the Grand Commander tomorrow. Ask them to grant us the tiger as a gift for him. I'll stay behind and ask them to give us the bloodstained curtains to see us through winter... in short, establish firmly that we're gathering firewood nearby. Tell the truth about everything else. Make connections where we should, ask for rewards where we should... we must be sincere! If they accept our story, not only will this matter blow over, we'll still have hunted our tiger without trouble, and even established a connection with this family!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Jili had already gone out with his club.

"Good!" Panting heavily, Liu Huzi immediately called for men to hoist the tiger with wooden poles and ropes. "Good! Good!"

Liu Acheng clapped repeatedly and coached the others. "Brothers, we've done it! Not only have we got our gift for the Grand Commander, we can ask this family for a reward in a moment too. Shout with me! If you don't know how to cheer, just copy Ahu and shout, 'Good! Good! Good!'"

At first, everyone was still somewhat dazed. But after Liu Acheng led them with three or five shouts of "Good," they quickly rallied and joined in, their voices ringing across the mountain.

By the time they crowded around the tiger and carried it out, their cries had unwittingly turned into genuine cheers. In stark contrast, everyone across the mountain was astonished, craning their necks from afar to watch... had they really killed the tiger? And so quickly?!

Meanwhile, Liu Jili had never had a particularly good eye for things. Never mind comparing him with Liu Huzi-even Liu Cheng was better than he was. But he had spent several years knocking about Jingkou. After running over, he soon followed the arrangement of the people and their clothing to spot the brother and sister still struggling with each other. Forcing a smile onto his face, he ran over, bowed, and shouted, "Liu Lang, Liu Cheng, and Liu Jian of Pengcheng are here! May I ask which noble household has come here to climb the mountain and enjoy the view?"

Xie Quan came back to himself, then hesitated... he had not expected three sons of gentry families among the woodcutters who had helped subdue the tiger. Instinctively, he wanted to answer, but then felt that not only was their standing low, they had even sunk to chopping firewood themselves. They were hunched and filthy, clearly reduced to utter destitution. Dealing with them directly seemed beneath the Xie Clan's dignity. Yet they had just killed a tiger for his family, so it seemed he ought to put aside the difference in status and take the initiative to respond.

While he hesitated, Qian Agong, the Xie household's steward, reacted swiftly. Though receiving visitors was not his particular responsibility, he immediately stepped forward to block the way. "The young masters and ladies of the Chen Commandery Xie Clan are here. Do not intrude."

Liu Jili froze and stared at the steward. Then he saw Xie Quan and the others standing behind him, unwilling to speak. When he understood, outrage surged through him and blood rushed to his head. Unable to control himself, he flung down his bloodstained club, turned, and went back.

Once, a tiger dwelled on Flower Mountain, roaming and resting in Shanyang. Emperor Taizu accompanied Lord Ren to Jingkou, where they made camp in Shanyang. Lord Ren's youngest son, Liu Ahu, heard that there was a tiger in the area and was beside himself with joy. Day and night he patrolled with blade and bow, yet could never find it. He therefore sought counsel from Emperor Taizu, who was then busy weaving straw sandals. Taizu answered, "One mountain cannot hold two tigers. With Ahu here, perhaps it has fled to Shanyin." Ahu thereupon climbed the mountain and indeed caught it.

-New Account of Tales of the World, "Speech," Book Two